GALLERY POULSEN/JAVIER AGUILERA

JAVIER AGUILERAGALLERY POULSEN 2010

OTAKU RIDEROctober 2nd – October 23rd

”LEFTIE”, 2008 / 127X40X26CM / POLYESTER RESIN AND CLOTHING

The first time I came face to face with one of Javier Aguilera’s figures, I was deeply affected. It happened at a fair in Kurfürstendamm in 2008. My girlfriend and I had already trudged past lots of exhibits, as usual, I was looking for new talents that make a difference – movers and shakers. But I hadn’t had much luck that day. Until suddenly, there was “Leftie”, right in front of us. I’d actually walked past it... but then stopped and went back.

“Leftie” is Javier Aguilera’s little street boy, sniffing glue as he looks up at you with pleading eyes. Bang...! The boy hit me right in the gut, and before I knew it, he was back in my gallery in Copenhagen.

It was clear from the start, though, that I wasn’t the only one bowled over by these sculptures. In 2009, I was lucky enough to bring a number of his sculptures to Copenhagen and exhibited them alongside Andrew Nygaard’s pictures. However, another year passed before he had found time for this – his first solo exhibition in Denmark.

I’m proud to be exhibiting his brand new work in this exhibition, which also introduces a new side of him – draw-ings and paintings. All the works reflect his curiosity. Last time he was here, we were having a meal in Tivoli Gardens when he suddenly left the table and disappeared. He’d seen a girl with purple hair and was asking if he could take her photograph. He does that all the time: He sees interesting people, takes their photo and includes them in his work.

Javier Aguilera’s figures all have a flaw of some kind. Some of them have been beaten, others have been drinking. Many of them have probably been on the wrong side of the law. Some are despairing and depressed, others are provocatively aggressive. And that’s how they reveal what’s concealed under the polished surface of society. And all that’s concealed is exactly what Gallery Poulsen wants to put firmly in the spotlight.

EnjoyMorten Poulsen

A PUNCH IN THE NOSE

JAVIER AGUILERA / OCTOBER 2010 / PAGE 2/3

Morten Poulsen

While the youth rebellion and Women’s Lib were rocking the foundations of the old societal structures of the western world, the Catholic general Franco kept Spain in an iron grip. Everyone was held on a short lead and any kind of excess was unwelcome. That was the situation until the dictator’s death in 1975.

The country’s constitution wasn’t signed until 1978, and then Spain began looking forward to a more promising future. The past was quickly left behind and the period after Franco’s death brought light and vitality to Spain. Working with

forbidden and irrational subjects was permitted. This is clear in the work of film director and storyteller Pedro Almodóvar, whose baroque films feature extremely bright colours and are full of everything that is outside what is considered normal. We see drug addicts, mentally illness, transvestites, prostitutes, thugs, bull fighters, etc.

Javier Aguilera’s gallery of characters belong to the same family. They are outcasts. Wild, sad, abandoned, and battered. People who inhabit the peripheries of what we call normality and respectability.

OUT OF THE DARK


Tom Hermansen MA (History of Art), Art Critic

Javier Aguilera was born in 1969 under the brutal boot heels of general Franco’s rule. He grew up in Madrid, watching democracy take shape and receiving undiluted shots of newly won Spanish freedom and vitality directly into his young veins. And freedom is precisely what his work reflects. Looking east and west, he uses everything that catches his fancy. In the west, he has found artists such as Americans Duane Hanson and John de Andrea, whose sculptures in the 1960s reintroduced the powerfully realistic human figure. In the east, he has watched over the shoulders of Japanese artists, and the bubbling manga comic tradition is very clear, especially in his most recent work. He also draws inspiration from Spanish history – with Francisco Goya’s horrifying pictures of war and executions as an obvious reference.

But Javier Aguilera’s most important reference is the present; his eyes are wide with curiosity, taking in all the people moving around him.

He translates the energy that is the hallmark of his working method into his figures. They live in the no-man’s land between introverted stillness and extrovert confrontation. Between silence and noise. We never know the specific story, as the people reveal only part of the trouble. So we don’t know who they are fighting. Who they are provoking. Who they are shouting at. Who they are making fun of. Who they are playing up to.

These people are testing the limits, and some observers are sure to think they cross the line with their strong, almost brutal realism. You’re not sure if you dare lift the miniskirt to see the masked girl’s exposed abdomen. And you don’t quite know if you dare approach the dark and partially undressed femme fatale with the arrow buried deep in her side.

This titillating confrontation is the core of Javier Aguilera’s work. Not only in his sculptures but also in his drawings and paintings. The author Umberto Eco calls this the poetry of open work. In other words, that the interpretation – the experience of the work of art – takes place in the person standing in front of it. The work therefore has no tangible core for us to find.

the experience of art is an event that plays out again and again between the work and the individual observer. It is a bodily experience. In other words, your clash with Javier Aguilera’s bloody, drooling abattoir dogs is not the same as mine.

The question is not so much what Javier Aguilera’s figures are, but what they do.

RAWREALISM

Tom Hermansen MA (History of Art), Art Critic


PLAYTIME, 2010 / 80CM / RESIN, FIBERGLASS AND FABRIC

“LAST NIGHT PARTY”, 2010 / 130X64X35CM / POLYCHROME RESIN, METHACRYLATE, FABRIC AND HAIR

“LAST NIGHT PARTY”, 2010 / 130X64X35CM / POLYCHROME RESIN, METHACRYLATE, FABRIC AND HAIR


“KAPOOOWM”, 2010 / 105X60X40CM / POLYCHROME RESIN, METHACRYLATE, FABRIC AND HAIR

“KAPOOOWM”, 2010 / 105X60X40CM / POLYCHROME RESIN, METHACRYLATE, FABRIC AND HAIR


“YOU’RE IN FASHION DAMIEN HIRST”, 2010 / VARIABLE MEASURES / POLYCHROME RESIN, STEEL

“MURAKAMI PUPPIES”, 2010 / VARIABLE MEASURES / POLYCHROME RESIN


Javier Aguilera working in his studio

“OTAKU RIDER”, 2010 / 110X60X46CM / MIXED MEDIA


“FLYING BIKERS”, 2010 / 70X100CM / ACRYLIC MARKER ON PAPER

“LITTLE SAMURAI”, 2010 / 70X100CM / ACRYLIC MARKER ON PAPER

“LOVERS”, 2010 / 70X100CM / ACRYLIC MARKER ON PAPER

“OLD SCHOOL BOY”, 2010 / 70X100CM / ACRYLIC MARKER ON PAPER

“DOG GIRL”, 2010 / 100X100CM / OIL ON WOOD


“TOMIKO”, 2010 / 50X40CM / OIL ON CANVAS “TAKEHIKO”, 2010 / 50X40CM / OIL ON CANVAS

“SUNDAY MORNING” 2010 / 100X100CM / OIL ON WOOD


“ARTIST IN RESIDENCE”, 2010 / VARIABLE MEASURES / POLYCHROME CLAY AND METHACRYLATE


“BIKER II”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

“BIKER I”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

“BIKER V”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

“BIKER III”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

“BIKER VI”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

“BIKER IV”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

“BIKER VIII”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE


“BIKER VII”, 2010 / 20X18X13CM / POLYCHROME RESIN AND PIGMENTED SILICONE

Javier Aguilera’s art comes alive when you move in close to the figures and study them. This is one of his sculptures being observed at the art fair in Madrid in 2009.

Javier Aguilera’s nutella girl was one of the most popular exhibits at Art Copenhagen in 2009. “You Only Live Once”, 2009. Resin, fibre glass and oil paint. Height 80 cm.


“Violent City”, 2009. Resin,fiber glass and oil paint. Hight 90 cm “Otaku Nights”, 2009. 52 x 28 x 25 cm, mixed technic

JAVIER AGUILERABorn 1969 in León, SpainRaised in MadridMoved to Vigo 23 years ago.Lives and works in Vigo

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010Otaku Rider, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2009Akira in my head, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2008Triangle Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

2005Disfigurements, Casa Roxa Gallery, Vigo, Spain

2004Humans, Termes Gallery, Vigo, Spain

2003Bad boys, Choco Gallery, Vigo, Spain

2001Vigo Financial Club Gallery, Vigo, Spain

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010Copenhaguen Art Fair 2010, The Nordic Art Fair, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Poulsen on Paper, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Polimorfos Perversos, Fernado Pradilla Gallery, Madrid, Spain

Love Story, Two Heads Chicken Gallery, Evora, Portugal

2009Copenhaguen Art Fair 2009, The Nordic Art Fair, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Berliner Liste 09, International Contemporary Art Fair, 3punts Gallery, Berlin, Germany

Art Madrid VI, International Contemporary Art Fair, 3punts Gal-lery, Pabellon de Cristal de la Casa de Campo, Madrid. Spain

7 na raia, Arte y Bronze Gallery, A Guardia, Pontevedra, Spain

Regrouping Herning, Gallery Poulsen Herning, Copenhagen, Denmark

Summer Group Exhibition 2009, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2008Altered Reality, 3punts Gallery, Barcelona. Spain

Berliner Liste 08, International Contemporary Art Fair, 3punts Gallery, Berlin, Germany

Art Madrid III, International Contemporary Art Fair, 3punts Gallery, Pabellon de Cristalde la Casa de Campo, Madrid. Spain

Cerco 2008. International Contemporary Pottery Art Fair. Zaragoza. Spain

2007Art Madrid II, International Contemporary Art Fair, Clave Gallery, Pabellon Cristal de la Casa de Campo, Madrid. Spain

Realidad o ficcion 9MA Gallery, Barcelona. Spain

CV ANDEXHIBITIONS


“GO TOTORO GO”, 2010 / 100X100CM / OIL ON WOOD

Photographs by Enrique Touri, Morten Poulsen and Beatriz Lago

Javier Aguilera working in his studio

Flæsketorvet 24 · 1711 København V+45 40 15 55 88 / +45 33 33 93 96

[email protected] · gallerypoulsen.comMember of Danish Galeries Association

Documents

GALLERY POULSEN/JAVIER AGUILERA